A pharmacist who was jailed for failing to get treatment for a baby girl with ‘horrific’ injuries has been struck off for life.

Lynne Onwughalu, 33, of Tansey Grove, Salford, was sentenced to 14 months in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of child cruelty.

Onwughalu was arrested and charged after taking a four-month-old girl - who cannot be identified for legal reasons - to Salford Royal with a fractured skull, brain damage and numerous breaks to the arms and legs.

When arrested she told police she had no idea how the injuries had been sustained. She later gave various excuses including saying the child fell off a bed and slipped from a sling.

A General Pharmaceutical Council (GPC) committee suspended her for 12-months but the decision was brought before the High Court by the Professional Standards Authority, who argued the punishment was too lenient.

High Court judge, Mrs Justice Cox, said Onwughalu had not deliberately concealed the baby’s injuries but had shown an ‘error of professional judgement’ in not seeking treatment sooner.

She also added the decision to only suspend her had been ‘aberrant’.

She said: “This appeal has succeeded as a result of a failing on the part of the regulator, through one of its committees.”

The hearing heard how Onwughalu gave ‘contradictory’ accounts to police about how the baby had received the fractures.

Medical experts also agreed the child’s injuries were not consistent with the explanations provided by the pharmacist.

Charges were brought over a failure to get treatment for the girl. It is still not known who caused the injuries, which doctors said were likely to have been caused by ‘rough handling’.

The mum-of-three was jailed along with her husband Chukwunonso Onwughalu at Manchester Crown Court in April last year.

Mrs Onwughalu, who was released from prison in November 2013, was not present at the High Court hearing.

However, she told the original GPC fitness to practice committee that she had made ‘misjudgements’ about the need to seek treatment for the baby.

The chairman of the committee in the original hearing Geoffrey Pettigrew said it would be ‘disproportionate’ to strike her from the register.

But after ruling the original decision had been ‘unduly lenient’ the High Court ordered Onwughalu be struck off for life and her and the GPC to each pay half of Professional Standard Authority’s legal costs.